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Posts Tagged ‘Jobs’
January 24th, 2024 at 5:28 pm
Image of the Day: Wages Still Haven’t Even Caught Up to Inflation Under “Bidenomics”
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As Joe Biden attempts to paint a rosy picture despite Americans’ real-world experiences, the truth is that wages still haven’t caught up to inflation during his presidency:

Inflation Exceeds Wages Under Biden

Inflation Outpaces Wages Under Biden

January 2nd, 2024 at 11:32 am
Image of the New Year: Biden Brags About Job Gains, But They’ve Continually Slowed Under Him
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The Biden Administration and its advocates insist that the economy is flourishing, often citing the job market.  According to the federal government’s own numbers, however, job gains have slowed since Biden entered the White House:

Job Gains Have Slowed Under Biden

Job Gains Have Slowed Under Biden

 

September 8th, 2023 at 2:46 pm
Image of the Day: Public Overwhelmingly Considers Unions a Negative Force
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Joe Biden carelessly and repeatedly labels himself “the most pro-union president in history.”  Well, this snapshot of public opinion illustrates his tone-deafness on the issue, and might also offer insight for those who can’t fathom why he remains so wildly unpopular.  Namely, an overwhelming share of Americans consider unions a negative force in the private sector, not a positive one:

Americans Consider Unions a Negative Force

Americans Consider Unions a Negative Force

June 6th, 2023 at 11:45 am
Image of the Day: The Ongoing Biden Pay Cut
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Posted without additional commentary, per the latest Labor Department data, here’s an illustration from economist Steve Moore of the immediate and ongoing pay cut that Americans have experienced since Joe Biden became president:

The Biden Pay Cut

The Biden Pay Cut

February 13th, 2023 at 12:12 pm
Image of the Day: Joe Biden, Slashing American Wages Since Taking Office
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While Joe Biden simply repeats his claims to be building an economy “from the bottom up and the middle out,” and strangely brags about slight reductions in the rate of inflation that shot upward under him, our friend Stephen Moore provides yet another handy visual on how inflation has outpaced wage gains since Biden entered the White House:

Inflation Outpaces Wage Gains Undere Biden

Joe Biden the Wage Slayer

December 8th, 2022 at 10:55 am
Bipartisan Senators’ Letter to NLRB Opposes Destructive Proposed “Joint Employer Rule”
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Many claim to prefer bipartisanship out of leaders in Washington, D.C., and right now we’re witnessing an encouraging example of it.

Specifically, Senators Mike Braun (R – Indiana), Joe Manchin (D – West Virginia), Angus King (I – Maine), James Lankford (R – Oklahoma), Kyrsten Sinema (D – Arizona), and Susan Collins (R – Maine) have written National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Chairman Lauren McFerran seeking reconsideration of the NLRB’s proposed “Joint Employer Rule” that they correctly warn “would have negative effects on workers and businesses during a time that many are already struggling following the COVID-19 pandemic.”

For years we at CFIF have sounded the alarm on the Joint Employer Rule that the Senators target, because it would dangerously reverse decades of established labor law by holding businesses liable and responsible for employees of franchisees whom they didn’t hire and over whom they exercise no control:

Under longstanding court precedent and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) interpretation, an ’employer’ for purposes of applying the nation’s labor laws was generally defined to include only those businesses that determined the essential terms and conditions of employment.

As a textbook illustration, imagine a franchise arrangement whereby the franchisee determines whom to hire, whom to fire, wages and other everyday working conditions.  The distant franchisor, in contrast, obviously doesn’t fly every potential franchisee employee in for an interview at corporate headquarters or micromanage its franchisees’ working conditions.

On that logic, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in NLRB v. Browning-Ferris Industries (1982) that the appropriate standard for defining an employer with regard to a particular set of employees was established by the U.S. Supreme Court in Boire v. Greyhound Corp. (1964).  It held that only businesses exercising control over ‘those matters governing the essential terms and conditions of employment’ were subject to collective bargaining requirements and liabilities.

Two years later, the NLRB formally adopted that standard, ruling in separate cases that ‘there must be a showing that the employer meaningfully affects matters relating to the employment such as hiring, firing, discipline, supervision and direction.’  In other words, an ’employer’ for purposes of labor law mandates required direct and immediate control over the terms and conditions of employment.

That stands to reason, since it makes no sense to impose legal liability upon employers that don’t actually control a bargaining unit’s employment conditions.

In August 2015, however, Obama’s NLRB suddenly and needlessly upended that established legal standard by redefining what’s known as the ‘Joint Employer Doctrine.’  Essentially, the Joint Employer Doctrine now allows multiple businesses to be held legally liable for the same set of employees.

Thus, in the infinite wisdom of the Obama NLRB, even employers with indirect or even merely potential ability to affect employment terms could suddenly find themselves subject to federal labor laws.”

In their letter, the Senators highlight the potential harm of the proposed rule.  They note that in the United States, nearly 775,000 franchises employ 8.2 million workers and provide $800 billion of economic output, which is projected to grow in 2022 to nearly 800,000 franchises.   As they further note, the International Franchise Association (IFA) found that the proposed rule could “cost franchise businesses $33.3 billion per year, resulting in 376,000 lost job opportunities, and led to a 93% increase in lawsuits.”

These Senators demonstrate welcome bipartisan leadership, and Americans should contact their Senators to make their support clear.

January 10th, 2022 at 10:11 am
Image of the Day: Biden, Pelosi and Schumer Faceplanted On Jobs in 2021
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On the heels of Friday’s unsettling jobs report from the Labor Department, we can now judge the performance and promises of Joe Biden and the Pelosi/Schumer Congress against actual reality.  They promised 10.3 million jobs would be created in 2021 if their massive spending and regulation blowout passed, versus 6.3 million jobs if their agenda wasn’t passed.  So how did it turn out?  Their agenda was passed, but only 6.1 million jobs were created as the U.S. economy slowed and struggled to recover from the Covid dip, as AEI’s Matt Weidinger highlights.  They apparently made things worse, not better, illustrating the sardonic adage, “Don’t just do something – stand there.”

Biden Jobs Performance: Worse Than Doing Nothing

Biden Jobs Performance: Worse Than Doing Nothing

 

November 22nd, 2021 at 8:10 am
Nebraska Just Posted the Lowest Unemployment Ever Recorded. Guess Why.
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In some impressive and instructive news, the state of Nebraska just claimed the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded.  The likely reason shouldn’t surprise anyone:

 

Nebraska’s jobless rate tends to run below the national rate. Economists cite a combination of factors that have kept joblessness in the state well below the U.S. average from the onset of the pandemic. Nebraska had fewer government-imposed restrictions on business, helping it avoid steep job losses some states experienced earlier in the pandemic.”

 

At some point, perhaps other more stubbornly leftist states will catch on before every one of their residents and businesses flees to more economically hospitable states with fewer regulations, lower taxes and less government generally.  But don’t hold your breath just yet.

June 4th, 2021 at 10:17 am
Image of the Day: Another Disappointing Jobs Report Under Biden, and an Increasingly Likely Explanation
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This morning brought yet another disappointing monthly jobs report from the Labor Department.  While the Biden Administration continues to blindly insist that potential employees sitting on the sidelines because of cushy government unemployment payouts aren’t the problem, the people who actually hire people in order to continue their operations seem to recognize a different story.  Over 9 in 10 say that worker shortages are weighing them down – far and away their biggest problem.  We know the workers are out there, but they’re not taking the available jobs.

 

April 12th, 2021 at 1:05 pm
Amazon Workers Soundly Reject Unionization, and NR’s Kevin Williamson Highlights Another Great Reason Why: Big-Labor Corruption
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We’ve recently highlighted how right-to-work states, which the Biden Administration and Congressional leftists hope to abolish, dramatically outperform forced-union states in terms of job growth, manufacturing and household consumption.  Worker freedom from Big Labor bosses is a leading reason why in a high-profile vote, Amazon workers in Alabama voted to reject unionization by a 71% to 29% margin last week.

In a phenomenal new piece, National Review’s Kevin Williamson offers another reason for rejecting unionization that we mustn’t ignore:  big labor bosses’ widespread corruption.  Williamson lists a litany of union officials convicted and sentenced for embezzlement and other misuse of members’ hard-earned dues – in 2020 alone.  Accordingly, the leftist anti-capitalist drumbeat just didn’t resonate with workers who were forced to choose their path:

It is easy to imagine a world in which American labor unions performed a valuable service in the labor market, as unions do in some other countries and as ours have at times in the past.  But that is not the world in which we live.  In our world, a small and declining share of private-sector workers belong to unions, which derive their clout from the fact that so many government functionaries — see the teachers- and police-union officials listed above — belong to unions…  The more money going into the union coffers, the more that can be transferred to Democratic campaign committees and super-PACs.  That’s a lot of foxes watching a lot of henhouses…

The Amazon workers in Alabama decided that it is better to have the market on your side than to have a cartel on your side. Smart call. The rest of the country should take note.”

 

Alarmingly, Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and leftists generally seek to impose laws depriving workers of that choice.  From the looks of things, everyday workers aren’t buying into it.

March 29th, 2021 at 9:46 am
Image of the Day: Guess Which States Boast Lower Unemployment Rates?
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From economist and friend Stephen Moore, the latest inconvenient truth:

South Dakota tops the list again at 2.9% unemployment – exactly the same as where it was 12 months ago. The only states with Democratic governors in the top 10 – Kansas and Wisconsin – had Republican legislatures and courts that blocked school closures and lockdown orders. And the same basket case lockdown states are at the bottom – California, New York, Hawaii – barely recovering still.”

Guess Which States Excel

Guess Which States Excel

March 16th, 2021 at 10:58 am
Image of the Day: Right-to-Work States, Which Leftists Hope to Kill, Outperform Compulsory Unionization States
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The Biden Administration outrageously hopes to curtail American workers’ freedom by eliminating Right-to-Work states (currently 27), and the House of Representatives just passed legislation accordingly.  Preposterously, breathtakingly dishonest and dishonorable leftists like Rep. Tim Ryan (D – Ohio) make the Orwellian claim that doing so actually advances worker freedom.  That’s a lie, as economist Stephen Moore highlights.  But more broadly, American’s must understand what a threat this is to their jobs and our economic welfare more generally, before it’s too late:

 

Right-to-Work States Excel

Right-to-Work States Excel

February 8th, 2021 at 12:53 pm
Image of the Day: On Leftist Policies and Unemployment, the Song Remains the Same
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We often highlight how Barack Obama didn’t end the 2008-09 recession or “prevent the next depression” (despite incessant uninformed assertion to the contrary), but instead captained the worst post-recession “recovery” in U.S. history.  As helpfully illustrated by economist Steve Moore, that just continues the longstanding record of leftist economic failure:

 

 

New Deal Debacle

New Deal Debacle

 

 

January 29th, 2021 at 10:28 am
Image of the Day: On Unemployment, “Red” States Outperform More Pro-Lockdown “Blue” States
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As they say in the legal field, “res ipsa loquitur” – the fact speaks for itself.  From our friend and economist Stephen Moore’s blog:

 

“Red” States Outpace “Blue” States

November 12th, 2020 at 11:49 am
Images of the Day: Unemployment Claims Plummeted Faster After $600 Checks Expired
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As the nation debates continuing coronavirus stimulus, AEI offers an eye-opening analysis:  Unemployment claims plummeted and the employment picture improved much faster after those $600 checks expired, reestablishing that while we always want to help those who cannot help themselves, government payouts can sometimes reduce incentives and ability to return to the workforce.  And this doesn’t even reflect remarkably positive employment reports released by the government since the end dates:

 

Unemployment Claimes Dropped

Continuing Unemployment Claims Dropped

 

 

 

 

Initial Unemployment Claimes Dropped

Initial Unemployment Claims Dropped

September 25th, 2020 at 10:05 am
Image(s) of the Day: The Obama/Biden Jobs “Recovery” Versus Trump’s
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From our friends at AEI, a wonderful capture of the difference between the Obama/Biden jobs “recovery,” which was the worst in recorded U.S. history (as the graph shows, they promised that unemployment wouldn’t surpass 8% under their wasteful spending “stimulus,” but instead it exceeded 8% for a record uninterrupted stretch), versus the sharp recovery under President Trump:

The Obama/Biden Jobs

The Obama/Biden Jobs “Recovery”

 

 

 

The Trump Actual Jobs Recovery

The Trump Actual Jobs Recovery

June 5th, 2020 at 9:46 am
Trump Bump: Record New Jobs Added in May, Unemployment Unexpectedly Plummets
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Defying nearly universal economists’ expectations, it was just announced that the American economy added a record 2.5 million jobs last month, and the unemployment rate actually fell sharply to 13.3%.  Surveyed economists had anticipated a loss of 8.3 million jobs, and a rise in unemployment to 19.5%.  The Dow instantly shot up nearly 1,000 upon opening, and we’re nearly back to its pre-coronavirus record levels.

 

March 6th, 2020 at 8:46 am
Breaking: Incredible U.S. Jobs Growth in February
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This is incredible.  Amid the coronavirus scare and economic malaise across the rest of the world, the Labor Department reports that job growth in the U.S. exceeded expectations by 100,000 in February:

Nonfarm payrolls grew far more than expected in February as companies continued to hire amid a growing coronavirus scare.  The Labor Department reported Friday that the U.S. economy added 273,000 new jobs during the month, while the unemployment rate was 3.5%.  Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for payroll growth of 175,000 and a 3.5% jobless level.  Average hourly earnings grew by 3% over the past year, in line with estimates.”

Although the effects of the coronavirus create uncertainty going forward, the Trump Bump has continued.

February 14th, 2020 at 10:06 am
Image of the Day: Economy Even Better Than We Realized
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Americans already expressed record satisfaction on economic conditions in the U.S., over three years into President Trump’s tenure.  Turns out that things are even better than we initially realized, as employment data from the end of 2019 was just significantly updated:

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Even Better Than Initially Realized

Even Better Than First Realized

 

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January 8th, 2020 at 12:02 pm
Image of the Day: Lowest-Wage Industries Benefit Most Under Trump
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From the official federal Bureau of Labor Statistics and our friends at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a nice visualization of how the Trump economic agenda has most benefited those in the lower-wage industries starting in 2018 after tax reform took effect.  So much for leftists’ class warfare attacks on tax cuts and deregulation.

 

A Trump Bump

A Trump Bump